Sunday, 19 February 2017

The Waffle Rock: A big attraction at Jennings Randolph Lake.

A large piece of rock is display
in just outside the visitor center of Jennings Randolph Lake, in Mineral
County, in the US state of West Virginia. The one side of the rock appears a usual
waffle-like geometric pattern of raised, darker stone that runs in almost completely
straight lines across the rock’s surface. The lines cross themselves at different
angles forming deep pockets of lighter colored material. This strange formation
has caused many to speculate on what might have caused such a strange pattern.
The boulder lodged into the ground at Jennings Randolph Lake is a small piece
of this rock that is believed to have broken off from the parent outcrop
somewhere higher up the slope. A smaller piece of the same rock is also on
display in the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History located in Washington,
DC.

The bizarre patterning on the
so-called “Waffle Rock” is a result of natural erosion, though over the years several
alternative theories regarding its origins have evolved, and these engross
pretty much the usual aliens, enormous reptiles and ancient Indian societies. The
U.S. Corps of Engineers propose some insight into the rock’s formation. The sandstone layers that make up the rock
were formerly deposited about 250 to 300 million years ago. Then as the
continent started to breakup by tectonic plate shifts, about 200 million years
ago, the sandstone block was folded onto itself frequently creating cracks in
the sandstone. Therefore, another 100 million years, the cracks started to fill
with iron oxide, leached from the surrounding rock by the percolating water.

However, this iron oxide mixed
with the sand grains in the cracks and formed a super hard material resistant
to weathering compared to the surrounding sandstone pieces. Hence, the
sandstone rock eroded away, it left behind the hard iron-oxide waffle like
pattern on the rock. Moreover, the Waffle Rock formation is not regular,
although alike patterned boulder have been found in Monongahela, Pennsylvania,
and at Tea Creek Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Numerous other
undocumented examples of this stone patterning are in quite a few other places
around the world. Still there’re so many peoples who refuse to accept that the
Waffle Rock is a natural formation. Hell, there are still people who
think the Earth is flat perhaps we should bow to his superior knowledge on the
subject. Now standing as an attraction for the public to view in person, the
Waffle Rock boulder of West Virginia continues to draw the crowds to this truly
ancient artifact.